Blazing Saddles / Not the Beans!

We begin our Stinky Sexy Slimy Seventies Summer with a SHOT! Ben draws first with his choice ”Blazing Saddles"  (1974  d. Mel Brooks). Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, and Mel Brooks. This is a big one, so rather than bore you with more reading, hit the play button and get to listening! Oh, and for the duration, please refer to us as "The Brooks Brothers," or "srehtorb skoorb eht," if you prefer. 6/10!

**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root

Transcript

The swinging seventies. It's just so it just gets me so, like, wearing suede, kinda sweaty, hairy chest. That's how I feel. Yeah. Keys and Bulls.

Nobody knows who's going home with who or when. Popping ludes. Yeah. Just rocking. Swinging the seventies.

Rocking and rolling. Hey, everybody. It's me. I'm one of your co hosts. My name is Paul.

I am your other co host. My name is Ben. And if you're listening to this, it's probably summer by now like it is here while we're talking. Happy seventies, swinging seventies summer. Last year, Ben's blockbuster Bonanza summer, and this year, we went back in time.

Praise God. To the nineteen seventies, the heat of Hollywood. Gotta get back in time. Gotta go back in the last eighties, but Great Scott. Great great job, Scott.

But you gotta go back. Ben, this was your idea where it's like, we haven't done a lot of movies not only made in the seventies, but movies that take place in the seventies. And that is also gonna potentially come up during this celebration of the seventies here on the show. It's one of those things that I feel like we hit the eighties and nineties and even the early two thousands pretty hard, and we don't really go hard into the seventies, which is really when, like, as we can all. As we all know, that is where cinema started.

Paul just spit his whiskey out. My whiskey that had frog shaped ice because I have a frog shaped ice mold. I need my little froggy, Ben. Where's my froggy? I need my froggy.

Like, taggert. That's not a froggy. But no big deal. Probably literally not a big deal at all. Haggard.

If you don't know Headley. It's Headley. If you don't know already, we're gonna do our best not to big Lebowski our way through this fucking thing. We will though. Ben's selection was Mel Brooks's blazing saddles.

He rode a blazing saddle. $19.74, and you're hearing Ben sing that song from the seventies cinema. We're shouting it out, and it's just, like, got one of the fucking great scores in general. It it's so good. Right when it started, right when the credits roll opening credits rolled, I just had a big ass smile on my face.

I was like, that song just started and, woof, it got me into the tone, got me into the world immediately. I had a big thing too. Uh-huh. There's some A decision. For me too.

I was very excited. Uh-huh. Because I could almost see in my mind while this was starting the Canyon Arrow ad from the Simpsons. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Canyon Arrow. Yeah. I really think so much that I really kind of forgot, is inspired by from this movie.

So much stuff. Mhmm. Which I Mel Brooks and Joan River. I think, has huge impact on On this century's dentist comedy, but on movies, like, on storytelling. Yeah.

Absolutely. And improvisational comedy. Correct. Yes. But also, as you were saying, like, just in general filmmaking, this as well as several others made by gentle this gentleman, This movie's fucking gorgeous.

It really is. When it says in Technicolor, like, it's, like, oh, fuck yeah. Like, it really pops. I was searching to see if I could get a four k version, but not not available at the moment. Uh-uh.

Yeah. But HD I watched it in HD and, anyway, we shouldn't need to. We're getting ahead of ourselves. A little bit. Yeah.

We're putting the the cart before the horse, the horse before the yeah. Something's happening and it's not right. We know that. We almost lost a one was it a $300 train card? We're gonna die.

Holy shit. Well, Ben Yeah. As this segment is maybe changed a little, maybe this is we're in the way back machine already. Oh. I like I like machines.

What you've been doing? I'm sipping my wine. Mhmm. Well, if you're in the LA area, you you know that, we're in the we're in the heat of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. And as we've, I'm sure, spoken to at length on this program already, my production of E.

G. Wells' The Time Machine, that I adapted and directed is going on right now. And you can find out more about that. You can follow the Time Machine twenty twenty five on Instagram and you can also just search the Hollywood Fringe site. We have five total performances, and they're kind of random times.

That's how the Fringe works, but we're at the Broadwater Theater. A guest of this program, Jessica Martin, is playing the time traveler. And so, you know, you wanna come check it out. It's it's really theater at its, like, heart, at its core. It's very movement based.

It's a lot of puppetry built by Ben Bruce Burrito. So, you know, a lot of review review folks involved, and it's it's one of those things that's we talk a lot about movies on here. But this is, like, one of those things for me that it's only really possible and available in theater, which is it's a different kind of beast, a different kind of storytelling. So if you're around and you wanna come check it out, I'm gonna be at every performance, and I would love to see you. It's pay what you can, and that's the most important part.

I love that. Yeah. I wanna say something about something you had mentioned. This is starring Jessica Martin as the time traveler. Yes.

Jessica. This is a little bit different than if you know the origins, the original, I should say. Yeah. HG Wells. Can you go on a little bit about how this has changed for this version?

Yeah. Basically, I went into this writing it, adapting it during during COVID. So I had a lot of time in my hands, time. And I Now you're almost out of time. Yes.

I'm dying. I just mean now that it's showing, you're out of time. Sure. Great. You and me, captain, are two men out of time.

Quite simply done. So yeah. He I have honest thoughts. I went into it adapting it and knowing I was going to make the time traveler female. I knew that, like, that was one of the things that was always gonna be the case.

And once I did that, once I kinda opened that door, which kind of fundamentally changed how that character goes through life, especially in the turn of the century London. Mhmm. It kind of just opened up a little bit of a floodgate of, like, okay. Well, if that the common improv rule, if if that is true, then what else? Right?

Yeah. What what else can be true in this world? So, yeah, the the story, if people aren't familiar, you know, it goes it's it's kind of a deep metaphor about inequality and class structure. And I just was like, well, same fucking conversation we're still having today. So let's just elevate that and bring it forward.

So, yeah, there you know, there's gonna be differences. It's not gonna be the same book that if people are familiar with the book or any of the previous movies. But it, I think, still kind of stays true to the structure that Wells built and kinda just brings it into 2025 a little bit. On the note of that, you were talking about some of the themes from the time machine? Yeah.

When was that written? Can you tell me off the top? 1895. Thank you. When does Blazing Saddles about take place?

Like, twenty years before that? Yeah. Does he say 1875? Something 1874. I think it's supposed to be a hundred years.

A hundred years before. So time machine blazing saddles current day. Still themes themes carry. Yep. Mhmm.

Oh. Yeah. That's how to feel about that. What have I been doing? Yeah.

What have you been doing? What's got you jazzed? You know, I have been working pretty hard at some audition material that I got. And, damn it, I got a callback. Hey.

Hurrah. And I just wanna thank you. I just wanna say, you and I are this is old hat for us for the most part, but I just wanna say for people that don't know or have forgotten or it's not old hat or whatever it is. A callback is a win. As we've as we've started the baseball season, go Mariners.

Go Mariners. Can't believe they're undefeated. True to the blue, baby. Yeah. Woo.

Let's savor the flavor, baby, while it lasts. So it's so true. To the blue. But you get a callback. You're at the very least on base.

You're in the mix. So you've left the batter's box. You've left the actual being at the plate, and you have you're in the field of play. You're on base somewhere. And the more you can get on base, the better.

Sometimes it takes a while to get all the way around and get home and get that booking or whatever. Mhmm. But I just to not only is a callback a win, a call at all is a win. Here. Getting in the getting in the room in general is a win.

Period. Yeah. Digitally or otherwise. It's one of those things even if you read something or look at something that's like, I am not this age, race, size, etcetera, etcetera. Go in anyway.

Be seen, apply yourself. You might not think that you're sheriff material, but Exactly. I think you're sheriff material. Wow. But that's great.

I had a I had a director who used to say that, if you get the callback, you've you've you've done your job. Mhmm. And Mhmm. I think, you know, that part of me is, like, yeah, cool, but the callback doesn't pay me. But also, like, you know, there's only, you know, we we've chosen a profession where there are there are only so few jobs and there are so many people.

Oh, yeah. I don't think people always fully realize that. Girl, know why I chose this. You decide to be a fry cook. There's only, like, four fry cook jobs available, and there's 15 fry cooks in the city.

And you're like, well, fuck. How do I how do I stand out as a fry cook? So yeah. I mean, I think managers know the managers because so much of it outside of staying sharp and having all the tools and putting it out there and being ready is, not being an asshole and finding people with similar interests and etcetera etcetera. Because a lot of the time, this shit just kind of happens organically.

Yeah. Don't be a dick. Be fun to work with and treat people well. Yeah. This is why I normally don't work.

So callback. Yes. Alright. Ben. Yeah.

What you've been watching? PCJ, man. PCJ. I I love it. I finished it.

I I finished it. I I went I went hard. I went hard, man. I was Brooklyn, we go hard. I was watching it on the treadmill.

I would watch an episode while I did a little run-in. I watched it while eating breakfast, have my coffee. I went hard. So good. And I think yeah.

It's so good. It's a jeopardy show that doesn't make me feel stupid, which I Normally, it's only celebrity for me where I'm like, I could do this. Or youth jeopardy or something. Trivial pursuit for kids. I'm ready.

I'm in. And I don't think I could ever actually go on a show like that. I think the pressure would just be too much for me. Like, I Okay. You know, even though I would know a lot of it for the most part, I I I just think pressure is too hard.

But what I was impressed with, as you know, that I used to host trivia Mhmm. I thought Colin Jost was a pretty damn good host. Yeah. I liked him. It's a hard line.

Oh, yeah. To host something like that. And I thought he I thought he did a good job of doing both his own thing and also kinda blending into the background. So, yeah, I I went hard, and I, I enjoyed it. Thanks for the rec.

A pleasure. I as soon as you said PCJ, I mean, I'm sure you saw my eyes light up. Yeah. But also good to know because about what you were saying your reticence about, like, doing something like that. Yeah.

It's like Chris Olds, former and future guest and human legend and wonderful person beat the beast on NBC years ago. Very, as you said, like, high pressure trivia show. Not everybody can cook under that pressure. Oh, Mike Bowers also goes on a lot of game shows. Mike Bowers also in the time machine.

Back home. So come see my guest of this podcast. Absolutely. And listen to our Batman Returns episode with Mike Bowers, please. It's wonderful.

Yeah. What about you, Paul? What have you been what you've been watching? I think this is really apropos as I was kind of trying to choose several things. I was gonna talk about the happy face killer show, which I kinda was like, I tuned out of it, like, partway through the first episode.

So sorry, Dennis Quaid, but it was like, you know, set in Washington. Do not apologize to Dennis. There's an inner space. There's an a thing within me where I feel like I need to I don't know where that comes from. Oopsie.

I ultimately wanna talk about, you know, just a few episodes into the final season of the righteous gemstones. And I don't know if you're up to date on that. I've never never seen it. Wow. The way it ends is mind blowing.

But, also, the way that the season begins kinda similar, I think, to this movie to a degree, kinda just post civil war and certain people deciding the way that things are gonna go or how they're going to divvy up power, privilege, or how this is all going to work. And I don't wanna spoil the first episode for anybody, but it's pretty great the way that they show the origins of how this megachurch starts from the very very beginning. This fam this megachurch family. You're the second person that has recommended that show to me in, like, the last week. It's getting me it's getting me closer and closer to the edge.

I think I I love edging. I you know? You're always edging to a decision. I I I live my life on the edging. You know?

Like, you're you're always coming to a decision. Nope. Nope. You didn't need to finish the sentence. That was it.

Period. Period. I do love Like Sting. I do love Alec Baldwin in the edge. You're right.

I'm like, I'm a Tony Hopkins guy in that one. Okay. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. Whatever. Gotta pick a side, though. I forgot what I was fucking saying. You were gonna talk about watching Righteous Gemstones.

Oh, yeah. I I do wanna start watching finishing, White Lotus. Didn't We All Love That? Everyone knows great. Mhmm.

Walton Goggins. Carrie Coon. Yeah. I mean, I love the cast. I think I've been The dude from what was that movie we saw together?

Zone of Interest. Oh, yeah. He's great. He's He's so good. He's I didn't even know it was him at first.

Like, it took me a while to realize it was the same guy. It took me until two or three episodes where I was like, oh, no. When I realized it, I was like, I'm upset. Yeah. The reason I was like, I've been hesitant to watch Righteous Gemstones is I just I just and, like, I don't mean this to be offensive to anybody.

I really don't. I just so loathe that part of our country that it just fills me with so much disgust. It's hard. If I may, and I don't wanna speak for you, and I I'm glad you're hard. But the when you say that part of our country, the way that I'm interpreting that is the indoctrinated religious zealot part of our country.

Right. Me that that culture. That part of our culture. The conglomerate megachurch Yeah. That has, like, mind washed Yes.

Millions. Yeah. It's super problematic, and this is literally lampooning I know. Kind of yeah. Totally.

Yeah. I know. And I do that's why I do wanna watch it. I just need to, I think, get there. I will.

Have you seen Eyes of Tammy Faye? It's a Michael Showalter directed. You saw that? Yeah. I liked that movie Yeah.

Me too. Pretty well. And this is, you know, the Danny McBride version of that. Okay. I guess is the best way that I can put it.

Shall we? How dare you? I sent you the link. You know what I mean? Come see Paul's one man show where he performs Blazing Saddles backwards.

And it's just Twin Peaks spelled backwards instead of Blazing Saddles. I security now it. Alright. Let's get to let's get to some facts. This is brought to you by backwards talking.

Archaeology is the search for facts. Oh, no. So facts backward is staff. Wait. Staff.

Stack? Staff? We gotta move on. We can't do this. Pukes him.

Well, we watched Blazing Saddle. It's a Crossbow Productions. If you didn't know, it's on Warner Brothers. If you weren't clear from watching the movie, it is filmed almost explicitly at Warner Brothers except for, like, the desert shots, but most of it is on the back lot. Trade R 1974.

It's an hour and thirty three minutes. It's a good length. Budget is 2.6. Oh, your friend, little Kia? I was gonna make a a Vonstuf joke there.

What's your lot? Von Stufel? Von Stuf. Stuf. Stuf.

Stuf. Stuf. Stuf. Stuf. Stuffing.

Stufing. Stop. Stop. Stop. 2,600,000.0 budget, 60 16.8 is adjusted.

Opening weekend was 02/07/1974. So this did not come out during the sweaty summer of the seventies. It just came out in the seventies. And that wasn't really a thing at that point quite yet. That's true.

Summer movies. '77. Right? Mhmm. That's when it kinda takes off or 76.

Jaws was 75 or 6. Yeah. 75. The final gross North America was a hundred and 19,600,000.0, adjusted 774. That's a lot of fucking money.

Yeah. Final gross worldwide, same. So just just The U North America release. Mhmm. Other releases in February of nineteen seventy four, typically on the weekend, McHugh, Zardoz, Spasmo, and Breezy.

True or false. Those are real. True or false. Are all, nicknames for the NSYNC guys. Right?

That's also true, but they are also I'm sorry. All movies that came out in February of seventy four. Sorry. What is all the nicknames for the character for the NSYNC guys? Bye bye bye bye bye bye.

Damn. I didn't answer in the form of a question. Weekend top five, not available. This movie finished first for the month and the year. Other films from 1974, the towering inferno, Earthquake, Benji, Death Wish, Herbie Rides Again, Chinatown, The Man with the Golden Gun, and Young Frankenstein, same year?

Within six five or six weeks of each other. That's insane. Astonishing. Bonkers. Blown the fuck away.

My mind is like, what does he say? It's like a mind is like a tarantula that's whatever he's like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't remember exact either. I didn't I was, like, gonna write down quotes, and I'm like, no. We'll be here all day. Yep.

Letterbox average is 3.8. Follow us. Won't you? I am at Run B M c. Still at par x badly.

Ebert, four out of four stars. That's pretty good. Rotten Tomatoes, 89%. Popcorn meter, 91%. That's pretty good.

Critic, seventy three. User, 7.7. Major awards, wins, and nominations, three Oscar noms, including best supporting for Madeline Kahn. This is back when comedies got nominated. Two BAFTA noms, Cleveland Little for promising newcomer to to lead films, and screenplay.

And That's a real category. That's crazy. He's great. Best promising newcomer to lead films. We'll get to it, but he is he's great.

Do they still I don't think they do, but maybe, like, MTV has, like, a best newcomer award or something? They absolutely did. And I'm sure the what's the what are the porn awards? Because they I'm sure they have best newcomer. Hey, everybody.

We're gonna talk about people. I don't know if any of them have worked in porn. You'll have to look it up. Director was Mel Brooks, baseball's Robin Hood men in tights, silent movie. Writers were Mel Brooks, high anxiety.

Norman Steinberg, RIP, Johnny Dangerously. Andrew Bergman, strip tease. Richard Pryor, RIP, busting loose. Alan Uger mostly wrote TV, and his writing has written TV. Director of photography, Joseph Biroch Biroche, RIP.

It's a Wonderful Life. Airplane, Hammett. Producer, Michael Hertzberg, Entrapment. Got a great ass out on a limb. Memories of Me.

Cleavon Little, RIP. Played Bart. Once bitten, Fletch lives, vanishing point. Gene Wilder, RIP, Jim or the Waco kid. Yeah.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, one of the great inspired fantastic haunting performances of all time. Absolutely. Amazing work in that movie. Also in Silver Streak and Stir Crazy. Slim Pickens, RIP.

As Taggart, doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1941, and The Getaway from 1972. Harvey Korman, RIP, as Hedley Lamar who at a point proclaims I should be nominated for best supporting actor at the Academy Awards, and I don't disagree. Hedley. It's Hedley. Jingle All the Way, The Flintstones.

Who is he in Jingle All the Way? I wish I knew Ben, but I know he's the dick the bird in The Flintstones. I guess yeah. I can yeah. I just I I just feel like I know Jingle All the Way, like, in my bones.

Yeah. You are I'm a It's disturbing. Balls yet. You gotta stop going to that. That's my dad as the turbo man.

I don't know if the plan to say that to you. You've been trespassed enough. Dasher, denser, prancer, get some comic, Cupid Put the cookie down. Hey. By the way, Harvey Korman was also in the long shot.

Madeline Kahn, RIP as Lily Von Stoop. Clue the movie paper moon. What's up, doc? Mel Brooks was the governor as well as the chief, the Muppet movie. Petamine.

Right? Lapetamine. Lapetamine is something Yeah. History of the world part one and Toy Story four. Burton Gilliam was Lyle, back to the future part three, thunderbolt and lightfoot, wild bill from '93.

Alex Karas, RIP, was Mongo, Porky's, Victor Victoria, Buffalo sixty six, and, of course, the television show Webster. David Hiddleston, RIP, was Olsen, Frantic, g men from hail. And I I don't know. It depends if you're into the whole brevity thing or which I don't know. Like, your Lebowski, Emma Lebowski said I could take any rug in the place.

The big Lebowski. This guy Benjamin. This guy can fucking walk. This guy's a fucking gold bricker, dude. Can you help me put him back in the chair, man?

I I another movie that's so great about being like just so you know, the this person is the asshole. Yeah. This person is the asshole. Yeah. Ben, let's have some more fun.

Fun facts. Fun facts. Fun facts, everybody. It's fun fact time. Some other notable names also appearing in this film are Count Basie, Richard Farnsworth, Sally Kirkland, Chuck Hayward, Hal Needham, Dick Warlock, and Dom DeLuise as the kid.

Yeah. He was not the skateboard. Not that's clearly not actor Willem Dafoe. That is Dom Delois Dom Delois. As the kid.

Obviously. Willem Dafoe was the skateboard. That's right. When the film screened for Warner Brothers executives, none of them laughed, and the movie looked to be disaster that the studio would not release. Mel Brooks quickly set up a screening for the studio's employees.

So when regular folks laughed uproariously throughout the movie, Warner Brothers finally agreed to take a chance on releasing it. This is like showing that to Zaslav and him being like, I don't get the joke. It's like, that's because the joke's about you, motherfucker. Yeah. I agree.

Like, that was like, we put regular people and giving it a chance in quotes. It's just a thing where most likely people that never have had two people were like, I don't like this. Yeah. Like, this is making me feel bad about myself. Mhmm.

Oh, wait. Now I can make some money off this. Okay. Yeah. We can talk about the mess that Warner Brothers is, or we'll just move on.

In the DVD commentary, Mel Brooks said that the working title for the film was Tex x as the reference to black Muslim leader Malcolm x. It was then switched to Black Bart, then to the Purple Sage. In either case, neither he nor the other writers thought those were great or appropriate titles. Brooks said that the title popped into his head while showering and was then championed by his wife, Anne Bancroft. Pretty cool.

I love that. I mean, I think it's like it has that, like, classic western title. Like Yes. Because it's not just about the share. I mean, it's about so many things, but, he and and the Waco kid are the blazing saddles.

Like, they literally, like, smoke out and then go take care of business. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. They are the blazing saddles.

It's perfect. The limit is not against filming, Burton Gilliam was having an understandably difficult time saying the n word, especially to Cleveland Little. At one point, after several takes, Little took Gilliam off to the side and told him it was okay because these weren't his words. Little jokingly aside, if I thought you would say those words to mean any other situation, we'd go to Fisk City. But this is all fun.

Don't worry about it. I was thinking a lot, and I think we'll talk about this a lot in terms of, like, this movie wouldn't be made today. But I think closest we've had to come to some this level of, like, satirization, is, like, bamboozled, I would say. Mhmm. Recently made, you know, there's not a lot that you can point to.

Maybe Dear White People, maybe Tropic Thunder was something that came to mind. Mhmm. Okay. Like, having this level of direct commentary that to somebody who's not really seeing the commentary could just see it and think it's racist. Do you know what I'm saying?

Absolutely. I mean, I've seen it in Robert Townsend movies. Like, we've talked a little bit about Hollywood shuffle on this. There's a a clump of movies, like blaxploitation movies and Keenan Ivory Wayans, like Wayans movies Yeah. That also, I think, do that.

Yeah. Yeah. So I I just think it's it's I don't know, man. It it's so important to a degree. It's nuance, and it's a thing where it's like people spoke like this.

Yeah. It it happened, and and it's ugly and it's despicable, but, and it's so great to a degree to have an example of of how far we've come or at least how far we've come on the surface. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sure. Yeah. And so, you know, lessons that have been learned and whatnot, but it's one of those things where I watched twelve years of slave years ago. Not a movie I'm ever gonna wanna watch again, but a movie that gives a very accurate depiction, but it takes it very seriously. And I this was part of why I was, like, nervous to walk into this movie was, like, some of the language and how's everybody gonna feel and what are we gonna talk about and all that shit.

We'll get into more of that. I'm excited to talk about it. Richard Pryor came up with the character Mongo, and I'm surprised, you know Necessary character. Totally. And I I think this may be common knowledge, but maybe not that Richard like, he wrote this for Pryor.

Mhmm. He'd like He did. Was what he originally wrote this for, and I don't remember why he ended up not being able to do it. I don't remember either, and I don't wanna speculate in this moment. But wow to have your pinch hitter essentially be Cleavon Little and the chemistry that he has.

Oh, yeah. What a fucking charismatic what a bunch of charismatic people, but he I have a feeling we're both gonna end up doing a lot of, fellating of this movie. So let's have a little more fun. Yeah. I mean, we talked to just real quick on Cleon Little.

I feel like we talked about on last episode or one of those last episodes we did with Moses Olsen, Kung Fu Hustle, about these live action cartoons sort of. Cleavon Little is Bugs Bunny in this movie, and he is doing it to a degree that feels honest and truthful, and it's hilarious. This movie and the folks in this movie and that have are making this movie and in this movie love Looney Tunes. Oh, 100%. And the people who made gremlins love this movie and Looney Tunes.

Like, there there's like this direct vein of of things from Warner Brothers for several for, like, clumps of years that have this love affair with each other that inspire maybe similar feelings. We're gonna find out. Last fun fact. Are you still ready for some fun facts? Because I got one more.

I So he's got one more. Jean one. Give me one. Give me two. Give me two.

Jean Wilder said of this film, they've smashed racism in the face, but they're doing it while you laugh. I agree with that. Yeah. And I think you're right with, like, the Damon Wayans things and in a similar fashion with Tropic Thunder where And Keith Keenan, it's specifically too as well. Sorry to talk over you.

Oh, yeah. No. No. No. I think yeah.

There there are there's a handful of things that do that, which makes some people uncomfortable. Oh, yeah. I I fit but it's so necessary. Yeah. I think it's it's totally necessary.

Brooks doesn't pull punches on anybody. You know? He's making fun of himself. He's making fun of everybody. But this movie is very purposely trying to say, like, this is how shitty it was a hundred years ago in 1874, and it's still pretty shitty, isn't it, for us?

And that's kind of the I would love to have an opportunity in in life to just sit down with Mel Brooks for, like, thirty or forty minutes and just talk. You made this movie fifty years ago. Yeah. Here we are at this point, like, you know, what's on your mind? Like, how would that go?

Ben, I'm gonna take a stab at the log line. Okay. That's what you think? You burn. I feel like I just had a stroke and ended up in a red room somewhere.

I'm gonna take let me take aim here, and I'm gonna try again. You. In order to ruin a Western town and steal their land, a corrupt politician appoints a black sheriff who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary. That log line and this episode are brought to you by Backward Talking. Backward Talking.

It's how you can convince your racist parents that you speak a different language. Backward talking as if if you thought life couldn't possibly be more fucking frustrating. It's like backward talking is like Pig Latin, except Pig Latin everyone understands. It's not coded at all. You wish you did Itchbae.

Hey asshole. Oh, man. What did you call me? Got them. I would never know.

Okay. We'll see y'all in a minute. Or an EOM gamer reef. Oh, he does have the power to fall on you. I was like, what are you talking about?

Namcrad. Namcrad. This episode's brought to you by backward talking, Ben. Namcrad. Gotcha.

Sorry. How stupid. Are you? So dumb. You simpleton.

You know, morons. It's one of the best deliveries of any line. It's very good. And I think Cleo on Little's laugh is real. Oh, me too.

I agree. I wonder if that was scripted or not. Yeah. I don't know. That These are the real Fucking what do you say?

Kind of people. Yeah. Salt to the Earth. It's like how I described That's bastard bison. Coders.

Okay. Let's get to some cinephile, Yeah. So we play a round of cinephile here to talk to decide who talks about first experiences. Ben is going to draw a card. It'll have an actor, their name, a movie they were in.

He gets to use that as a freebie. We'll go back and forth until someone can't get one. First person that can't get one has to speak about their first experience and most up to date experience first. With blazing saddles. Alright.

That's gonna be heavily edited. It was really good, Paul. You should just run it backwards. You know, I believe you I believe you because I'm a moron. Let's see that again in instant replay.

You got it. There's no a sourdough. Alright. Here we go. I'm gonna pick a card.

Can you hear it? If it's your rack, I'm gonna freak out. Here we go. Have we done this one before? I don't know if we have, but here we go.

Colin Farrell, the lobster. The banshee, Savina Sheeran. In Bruges. The Batman. Daredevil.

The recruit. Oh, love love the recruit. Love the recruit. What is it called? Fuck.

Fuck. I'm losing time. Seven psychopaths? I don't know if he's in that so I can't challenge. Tiger land.

The wind in the barley? Is that what it's called? The wind in the No. It is not. What is it called?

I'll I'll concede. What's the what's the name of the Was he in the thin red line? No. I don't think so. Oh, that was gonna be my next guest.

So, whew, I don't remember what Terrence Malicki's in, knight of cups something. The wind that shakes the barley? Yeah. Is that the one I was thinking of? I think so.

I know Cillian Murphy's in it. I don't know if Oh, that's just screw up. I did. Oh, Swat. That's what I should've gone with.

Swat. Alexander. Swat. Swat. Craft service.

Taws. So many Taws. No. No. No.

No. No. Carolina. So many options. Messed up.

And those cold winter nights in New York drives the whole world. Oh, we did okay. She'd be there with a coconut wall. I do. We did okay.

I do like Colin Farrell. Oh, yeah. He's he's great. Growing. She's absolutely fantastic.

Okay. Fright night, the Fright night remake. Oh my goodness. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Liked that movie a lot. Me too. Pleasant surprise that was. David Tennant.

Lovely to attend that movie. Okay. Get back in the way back machine. Alright. Going way way way back.

Way back to the nineties, folks. My god. I was asking my brother because my grandparents, you know, we traveled a lot in their RV, and we brought a little VCR TV combo. It made me feel pretty cool, if I'm being honest, that I could watch movies while, like, in a car driving was felt, like, pretty pretty pretty pretty cool. And they didn't have many movies.

I know my papa had Lawrence of Arabia, the two disc or two two disc two tape. And he and he had, we had Beetlejuice, of course, but I knew we had Blazing Saddles. And I asked my brother, when I watched this yesterday, yesterday because I was like, why did we have that movie? Like, how did that movie get into the collection? And he was like, our grandma Eileen, who is my mom's mom, not my dad's mom who I traveled with, bought it for us.

And so we just brought it because I had it in the, on our vacation. There was a time where I remember watching this maybe maybe 10 times in, like, a week. Wham bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam. A little bit. Yeah.

That's not a little bit. No. It's a lot of it. And I had a my friend Adam was on this trip with us, one of my best friends. We were at Sun Lakes in Eastern Washington, and it just became, like for that week, it became, like, a way of life.

And we were, of course, too young to, like, fully understand it, but the jokes were so funny to us that we would just, like, laugh and then rewind and watch it again and laugh. And it just, like, it just slayed us. Like Well, it's like Looney Tunes, like we've said, like, visually. Yeah. And the and and the jokes to me okay.

Well, so back then, I would have given this I easily would have given this five stars. I haven't watched this movie in a while, and I've been quoting it for decades. I worked at a restaurant with some people who are also huge Mel Brooks fans, and the people who've worked in restaurants before, you know that things go wild. People act like buffoons in the kitchen, and we would frequently just, like, shout out Mel Brooks' quote. Yes, chef.

Oh, I don't need no stinking badge. Put the candle back. You know, just like a lot of random Put the cookie down. Quote. So, but I went into it watching this yesterday.

I bought it on the Bezos box because I was like, I don't have a copy of this. And it was, like, I don't know, $10 or something. And so I was like, I'm probably gonna, like there's gonna be things here that rub me weird, I'm sure. But I I'm like I told you, I immediately got a big gold fucking grin on my face, and I laughed out loud multiple times watching this movie by myself. And I think I've said on this podcast, Paul, that I don't laugh a lot while watching movies by myself.

You've said it a few times. Yeah. You and you are a certified psychopath. Correct. Yes.

Phony dractice. Hello? Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I was I I had a great time. I think that it is brilliant. I think that it is Say yeah.

Say it with your chest, bud. Yeah. I think it is brilliantly written. I think that it's a level of satire that you we don't really get anymore, and it's done with such a deft hand that it reads as this sort of, like, wild comedy while still having these just, like, undertones and commentary on the people in charge who make these shitty decisions that fuck up poor people and black people and, you know you know, anybody that we really care about. Sex workers, Jewish people, Latin people, poor people, like Yeah.

Any yeah. And this just kinda like you you watch it and you you just kinda you you kinda take on you take on the badge of of sheriff of, like, yeah. Those fucking guys are and they color them I need your stinking badge. They color the race like, the racist dudes, the cowboy dudes are so fucking stupid. It's delightful.

Right from the get. Yeah. Right from the very beginning. Mhmm. The end of this movie is bonkers.

And as most Mel Brooks things are want to do, they kinda come to a point where the sketch or the joke or whatever is like, oh, okay. How do we and this is kinda like the epitome of the of that. And now for something completely different. Yeah. Which I appreciated this time, especially now living so close to these places.

So it's maybe not a five for me, but I think this is a solid four and a half chess pieces. King king chess pieces. Put the put your hands around the king. We almost chose the same rating system. We were very close to choosing the same rating system.

Oh, see that hand? Oh, yeah. Steady. Solid as a rock. Yeah.

Better shoot with this hand. Ben is wildly waving his hand through the air. Sticulating crazy Paul. The way that he just flaps it up and down. Yeah.

So, again, the physical comedy like loony tune ish attitude of this movie at times is so great. Because it's the only way you can do it. Mhmm. And so, like, kudos to all those involved. Well, I have to play this off of my first Mel Brooks experience, which before I was even born, you put the VHS of Spaceballs in Spaceballs while you're watching Spaceballs, but it was Spaceballs.

Spaceballs. Yeah. That was one of the first movies that my dad was like, you can watch this and somebody said shit. And I was like, was like, you said shit. Someone said shit.

My dad's like, oh, yeah. But a couple few years later, my dad allowed me to watch this. And I had a blast. Of course, it was mostly, like, at the blasty moments where dudes are blowing ass at, you know, campsites said Yeah. You know, things are exploding and shit like that.

Didn't fully get it and then watched it again years later many years later. Because I haven't watched this in at least twenty years, so I must have been two. Something along those lines. I don't understand your age. I age backward, Ben.

Oh, you talk backward and you age backward. Yeah. And stay out of my attic and leave that picture covered and don't touch it. You're the Don't worry about it. You're the bicurious case of Benjamin Button.

How do you say Dorian Gray back there? Dorian Gray? Wait. Why is Dorian Gray? I don't know.

Ben, none of it's supposed to make any sense. Just leave it alone. Wanna write off. Just just let it wash over you. Let the Looney Tunes nonsense wash over.

And they're the what? Yeah. What a tarnation. Writing it off. So that was a pretty okay.

You say what he's saying? The That was some what did you say? That hillbilly frontier gibberish. That was some genuine frontier gibberish. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Mhmm. The thing for me with Mel Brooks is every Mel Brooks movie I've seen, Dracula dead and loving it.

Yeah. Robin hood men in tights. Yeah. Violent movie. All of them.

I think they're all great, but I can't I don't think young Frankenstein especially I think is maybe my favorite. Sure. But I also don't think I've seen any one Mel Brooks movie more than two or three times, and I'm a movie rewatcher. And I think that's almost because unconsciously, I I like that a lot of his stuff just doesn't seem to age, and I don't know why that makes me not wanna rewatch it more frequently. Walking away from this movie many years ago, my second viewing, it was for Ben, I need my froggy.

A froggy? I need my froggy. Taggart. It was four froggies. Of course.

I rented this. I rented this Mhmm. On Fandango at Home because I was gonna do it on Amazon and I was like, don't you give Bezos that money? And then I gave the money to Walmart. Great job.

Paul. You dipshit. The Waltons. The Waltons. That money.

Yeah. So it looked really great, though. Like, wherever they got the digital negative from, I assume it was, like, a very good Blu ray or something like that because it looked wonderful. I watched this earlier today. I didn't get on my phone much at all is, and it was a lot easier than it usually is to not get on my phone much at all.

I was just was just kinda breezing along. The runtime doesn't hurt. Yeah. The movie is so packed. You really have to pay attention, but the runtime makes it feel fairly breezy.

Yeah. I can't say anything in this moment that we haven't already said, except for there is something about really, really excellent satire that is so timeless, so diamond, so unbreakable. And this it was like, to me, like, the the kind of, like, loss and translation with Heathers, like, where that's gonna land, I think, differently on people and I think appropriately very differently on people. I think with this movie, there it can land different ways, but it's hard for it to not land in a specific place. It's so intentional.

And and that includes the way it's shot and the way it's scored and the way it's edited and the way it's costumed. My god. The costumes in this movie are fantastic. That suede sheriff suit. Dude, everything that Cleave on little wears through this movie is fucking gorgeous.

Yeah. He looks amazing. Gene Wilder looks amazing when he gets the all black on. I'm like, dude, fucking Gene Wilder. Dude, when Madeline Kahn, I mean, whoo, be still my beating heart.

But I'm so tired. Her accent is hilarious. She's man, she's great. And I love the thing that the movie does about how the disenfranchised and the put upon and the, you know, dregs of society or whatever realize that, like, I've been getting fucked over. People are fucking me over and that they find that there's a power in without I don't know how to put it.

It's five froggies for me. It's like a soft five. Let's go. It's like a soft five. Let's go.

Because there's some stuff where it's like the bean thing where I'm like, okay. Like, there's some, like, there's some stuff where I can probably wiggle a bit, but as we start the movie Start the movie. Start the movie. Start the movie. And now, our feature presentation.

That's Soul Bass opening. I got that. I assume you got it. Yeah. It's Yeah.

This is part of why we're doing the seventies, especially if you are a movie fan. You're a cinephile. Right, Ben? I'm a kind of file. Yeah.

I'm not a oh, boy. Bibliophile? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. So but the saw bass, graphica file? But the saw bass logo and then the burning of the of the Warner Brothers logo. Yeah. It's immediately so immersive.

He does this so well where he knows the genre so incredibly well that he's going to he's going to, like, put you he's gonna put you into a western movie. Mhmm. Like, it's you're in a western immediately. You're in a classic, you know, John Ford nineteen fifty seven western. Mhmm.

It it's gonna turn its on its head very quickly, but that doesn't mean he's going to like, same with young Frankenstein. He's not going to, like, the designs, everything, the coloring, everything's going to be on genre, and it's and and beautiful. It lives in, like, a Bela Lugosi, yeah. Universal. Lon Chaney, like, it lives in that.

Yeah. Yeah. Same matter. Can I come back? In the in the very beginning of the movie, at the somebody dies immediately.

And it Place. And it plays for laughs, but somebody dies immediately. Is that the person who passes out on the train building the train? Yeah. But, I mean, you can I think you can be left to assume that they are potentially dead?

Yeah. I'll say this as we go on. I'm going to quote things. I'm not going to say racist slurs. No.

Yeah. No. Nobody's doing that. There's, like, doc there's, like, a half day's pay for sleeping on the job, and they're just dead. And these aren't the people that built the train, Walter.

Alright? These are the people you think I'm rolling out of here naked, dude? These people built the fucking nation. Railroads. Yeah.

They they built everything. Like, there's a reason why Warren Buffett is so insanely wealthy, not only because of things that he's done outside of this, but because he owns, like, pretty much every piece of railroad track in America. Yeah. And they show really, like, early like, in this, it's, like, it's, you know, very close to the end of slavery and, like, the railroads were built by a lot of Chinese immigrants and black folk. Absolutely.

Free like, slaves who were who were mass emancipated. And then And and convicts, it shows, like, a few people that are probably convicts, like, etcetera, etcetera, imprisoned people. And these idiot, I forget his name, but the guy who's just like, sing us a song. He's got those taggerts, like, yeah, henchman guy. Yeah.

And they're like, I get no kicks from champagne. Like, they go into this It's so good. Croon, and it's incredible. It's, like, very classy and Yeah. And, like No.

What's that? And they they get, like Hamptown ladies. They get the dumb employees of the rich guy, like, the dipshit, like, guys with the golden handcuffs to start dancing for them. Like a bunch of dudes. Yeah.

Almost immediately. And I love Cleavon Little's response where he's like, ladies. Like, he's British. Dude, when he says, I have a Dutch grandma, I died. I, like Excuse me.

I have a Dutch grandma. And then they get on the train car. They're like Well, you're gonna feel really dumb later. The the thing that Taggart comes in is, like, you're dancing around like a bunch of Kansas City Chiefs or Royals. You know what he says.

If you've seen the movie. We think we have some quicksand up. Go ahead and send some horses. And they're like, no. Horses?

Send some black folk. We have laborers here. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry.

And it's like, oh my god. We're starting immediately with this, like, scathing commentary on how little these people care about people of color. And they send them on the track to go find this quicksand, which I love immediately. They sing they start singing Camptown Ladies as their They said that, like, they knew the song. They knew the song.

Yeah. When I I get the very first I'm so glad you said the Looney Tunes thing. I'm so glad we're on a similar wavelength here because I was nervous walking into this movie being, like, I feel like this movie has a lot of stuff that maybe is not gonna age well, and I just had the best time, obviously. Yeah. Mhmm.

But when when the cart sinks out of the camera frame Oh, and they're I think they're just do it, like, bending their I think it's just physical storytelling. Yeah. And it's great. Yeah. I the the thing that I kept coming back to is, like, Bugs Bunny I mean, like, Looney Tunes, right, can be traced back to classic silent film era physical comedy, right, which can be tracked back to, like, vaudeville Mhmm.

Which can be tracked back to Moliere. And in Moliere Woah. There is a character called the Scamp. They're the ones that are going to outsmart the Yeah. The yeah.

That's what and they're gonna outsmart everyone. They're gonna get the girl. They're going to somehow, like, come out of this with the money. Ferris Bueller. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's that's what Cleven Little is in this. He is he is the Bugs Bunny. He is the scam. And this entry is Dennis the man.

He's going to outsmart everybody. Well, and I like how there's not really there's not like a Daffy Duck or a Porky Pig or it's just like this is a Bugs Bunny thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Bugs Bunny picture with Gene Wilder.

I'm okay. I agree with you where it's like, I don't feel like there are other everybody exists and understands like this universe, but it's just there's one Bugs Bunny and there's everybody else Yeah. To a degree. Not that and, again, it's not that other people aren't incredible. It's just they don't feel as near, like a loony tune.

Yeah. And Cleveland Roberts are he's so good in the part, and that's So charismatic. So when they they sink into the quicksand, which reiterates my fear as a child of quicksand Yeah. Right. Feel like, gonna be Power Rangers episodes or, like, random princess bride.

There's just quicksand everywhere. Legends of the hidden temple. Yeah. And let me tell you, haven't encountered quicksand. Have encountered crippling debt.

Haven't encountered quicksand. And they figured out, like, well, we just have to run the track that way because because we can't go through the quicksand. But that means we have to go through Rock Ridge. Yeah. We gotta save our train cart.

These guys will save themselves maybe. When he says they save themselves, and the guy says, breaks over. Breaks over, fellas. Good fucking god. But it moves to we meet Hedley Lamar.

Hedley. And see these this executioner of all these people that are just getting killed all day, and they discuss the land snatch of Rock Rich. And he is just a railroad tycoon as far as Yeah. He's he's just a multi he's just a rich dude. And if I may, Hedy Lamarr the actress and inventor and all around genius human being and incredible person Mhmm.

This was part of the thing that I was nervous about because I was gonna do appropriate research for this movie. And it's like, why the Hedley Lamar to Hedy Lam like, why are you goosing this specific actress who, like, invented GPS and also, like, this is know that. And, yeah, she's a pretty incredible Don't look at Hedy Lamarr, everyone. Yeah. Absolutely.

But Mel Brooks was quoted as saying, I did this specifically to get people talking about Hedy Lamarr because I'm an admirer of Hedy Lamarr. And that would my whole entire intention of this was to essentially raise Hedy Lamarr awareness. He even settled a lawsuit that they met, and they settled he settled a lawsuit with her out of court, over the whole thing. And I think he told her what I just told you. Like, I'm absolutely just a fan of you, and I think it's important that people know who you are, and this is all I can do.

That's crazy. I was blown away by that as we're talking about things being blown away. We're in Rock Ridge, and we go through a montage of the folks in this small Western town, a grandma getting punched and a naked guy. I I just love the visual of, medieval executioner. Executioner?

Yeah. I can barely fit him in Nakamunday, sir. It made me wanna watch men in tights. Yeah. Don't worry, Taggart.

Don't worry. It's just a man and a horse being hung. That made me wanna watch Beverly Hills Cop, Taggart. Yes. So we get to Rockridge, which is if you have not been to the Warner Brothers backlot, it is their Western Strip.

It's still there. Yeah. Which is super, super cool. Yeah. Like, when we get to the end of the movie we were talking about, it's like, oh, man.

I walked by and on some of those sidewalks so many times. And now we're here in Rock Ridge. You really enjoy a musical. Yes. I do love a musical myself.

Yeah. And and I am extremely picky about them, but there are a few that I really, really love. That's something that I think this movie does so exceptionally well, is it tells story and dumps exposition through music and keeps the mood through music. Oh, yeah. But people don't break out into song and dance.

Like No. It's it's musical, but it's it's not a musical. Yeah. Because we get the we get the and then they came over then the burglars came and roarin' or whatever. They they show us Rock Ridge.

It's like this God fearing Christian town of, like, these white people named Johnson and Right. Yeah. They get all these the racist cowboys come in and just, like, go to town and start destroying shit. Because they're just trying to scare them out. Right?

And Yeah. Build classic tales oldest time, really, you know. It's it's it's just like Robocop when OCP wants to build Delta City or It's just like Nam. Roger Rabbit when they're gonna build through Toontown. What what was dark man backward again?

I don't remember when they wanna do their it's the tail is old this time. But when we meet the governor this time. I'm a funny guy. Let's do some improvisational care. Now.

I'll do. When they're all doing the paddle ball, we meet the governor. Okay. Governor Lapetal Maine. And I and I love that he's cross eyed and just like, hello, boys.

How are you doing? Yeah. Like, he's he he just has this, like, stripper as a secretary. And and it's just like president Scroob. Work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work I'm a fucking idiot.

Somebody else is pulling my strings. Worship me, though. Worship me. Love me. Oh, yeah.

Bring me gifts. Give the governor harrumph. If you were running for me Watch your ass. For you, Bigfoot would have been a harrumph. I didn't get a harrumph out of that guy.

This will secure your name in the annals, and we gotta work out how important the annals are. I got a warped one. I always get a warped one. Get a warped one because he can't do the paddle ball, but, of course, like, the evil the really evil guy, Hedley Hedley? Yeah.

Hedley Lamar. Hedley. Hedley, he can easily do it because he is pulling the string. This was also a rating system that I considered. String pulling or paddle ball?

Paddle balls. My other one was exploding horses. Did you notice, like, those clearly plastic horses in a couple? It's so great. I love it.

So they rather than hanging Bart because he, Oh, yeah. We've been forgot to mention he hits Headley over the head. No. Not Headley. Taggart.

Taggart with a shovel. Shovel. And avoids being hung to become the sheriff of Rockridge. Because they think it's hilarious that they're gonna give this god fearing white community a black sheriff. And he'll fail.

And he'll fail, and they'll hate him and probably kill him is sort of what they think. Because the governor is so this is, like, directly saying, like, oh, this tycoon is in the pockets and pulling the strings of the governor, like an oligarchy, you know, kinda like Right. Kinda like if, like, the richest man in the world was actually the one making all of the decisions in the White House. That would be a weird thing. Right?

Who your pocket. Okay. Sorry. Who your pocket. Don't there's no need to I just I love I think Brooks is just a comic genius.

I agree. With the Gucci saddle bags, I die. I die. It's the perfect second act intro where we've been introduced to Cleavon Little as a laborer building a railroad stuck in quicksand about to be hung by the the crazy executioner. And he rolls into town on a pristine horse.

Yeah. Dressed pristine, beautiful predates Gucci, like saddlebags. I love that the rules don't apply here. It's amazing. They got a big old party set for him to welcome the sheriff, and they got frontier gibberish guy sits on the roof watching out for him.

Yeah. Sheriffs are calling. David Huddleston and all of the supporting All the Johnsons. In here. They're great when they all pull the guns on him and he pulls the gun on himself, And they're like, oh my god.

He'll do it. He'll do it. Do what he said. Yeah. And he's pretend he's like, I'll kill him.

I'll kill him. He's doing both voices and not even, like, switching hands or anything. No. When he skirts like, they're like, who's gonna help that poor man? And he just goes into the sheriff office and goes, they are so dumb.

It's so great how many times that I think it's a rule of three. How many times they establish just how smart he is. Yeah. Because I think it's the train track situation or the dancing situation before the train track, then the gun situation here, and then later on the Mongo situation, and then it hits a crescendo later on. It's really beautiful how they establish, like, he has had it real fucking hard in life, and he's had to be really fucking smart.

Yeah. And and what I also love about the character is that he's not and you could easily go this way. Right? Because he could easily become, like, downtrodden and, like Yes. And, like, depressed.

He has too much spirit. Yeah. And he he's just like he he's like, yeah. Shit sucks Mhmm. For me and my people, but I'm a happy, jolly guy.

And that's why I love okay. I don't wanna get ahead, but we're talking in-depth about this one, man. We're kicking off the season here. The '7 the sizzling seventies, sexy Summer. Scantily, slippery.

Is this That frog's slippery, that little frog. Taggart, where's where's my froggy? Froggy? That's Where's my froggy? And I the the I I laughed so hard in that sequence because he, like, puts his hands down and these bubbles shoot up and hit Taggart, like, in the face.

Oh my god. It's so And when Taggart gets up to look for the frog, his gun belt is stuck on the chair, and the chair, like, comes with him. And I was just dying, like It's so good. Comic gold. This is, like, when we watched The Mummy.

I thought of The Mummy in that sequence because of the just because of simply the chair thing. Yeah. The chair thing. I was like, oh, well, Stephen Summers probably loved this movie. So we we have the second town hall and figure out everybody's a Johnson in the whole thing.

And Howard Johnson is right. And he has great budget hotels, so you can trust him. Because it's Howard Johnson who is it that has the ice cream shop? I can't remember which one, but the mustache one. The one with the mustache.

Do you see the sign? It just says one flavor. Yeah. Assume it's vanilla. Yeah.

Exactly. But when we meet Gene Hackman, he's hanging upside down. It's made so clear right there in the physicality that this person is not like other people. Like, it it's very intentional. You said Gene Hackman.

Oops. I sure did. RIP. Gene Wilder, RIP. Yeah.

My two genes. I I love the line of, like, are we awake? I don't know. Are we black? Okay.

Then we're awake, but we're very confused. Well, what do you what do you like to do? Well, I like to screw and play chess. Well, let's play chess. The way the way he the way he says it, play chess.

Oh god. Screw. And then look on Cleavon Little's face like, let's play chess. Like, oh god. It's even, like, it's so casual.

He throws he throws it away almost completely. The tiny bit of, like, oh, like, it's so little of that. I would be so curious to know. It's so beautiful, the delivery. I and I think this might be Brooks as a genius, and Gene Wilder's a genius, and Cleavon Little's clearly a genius, but that because Cleavon Little is, for the most part, a little bit of a bigger character Yeah.

Gene Wilder was like, I'm just gonna, like, be really laid back and play this, like, super casual because that's how he kinda plays. Off him. Yeah. A lot. And it and and he, like, underplays most everything.

Most jokes that he has are totally underplayed. Gene hi Gene Wilder who's who's, like, a star Oh, yeah. At this point is just, like, okay. Totally fine. Just second fiddle.

Letting Cleavon Little take the lead and understanding, I think, as just a fucking brilliant actor and great director here and just what a. But that he understands he has such great moments, like this chess piece moment. Oh, yeah. And they're showing us, like, he used to be this crazy gun shooter, and he is now, like, drunk in himself stupid because he got tired of people coming and just wanting to fight him, because he's so good. But And he got reverse in bruised.

He got backward talk in bruised. Yeah. He got shot in the ass by a kid. Shot in the ass. That's true.

I was, like, what are you talking about? Speaking of what are you talking about in backward talking, this is so convenient that we now get Mel Brooks as the native chief Yeah. Which is Other than the brown face. I think this is the thing because I think we're gonna maybe be on a similar wavelength. Same matter can occupy same space, but we'll see.

He's doing like five or six different languages and or dialects or shit at that time where there's like a level It's mostly Hebrew, I think. Well, and it's like there's that and there's I there's a couple German words in there and there's some other things. And where he as the and that's the thing is I have no idea if he pitched this to Warner Brothers or Warner Brothers said we need you to do this or there's we've we cast a net and there's no one. You assume not. But Mel Brooks does this part, and he really nails what is so important at the end of this exchange with he and, is it the black family.

Yeah. That He's talking about his that the native spared their family. Yeah. And he's like, because they have it at at least as fucking hard as us. Fucking shit's tough all over.

Like, in he has a level of empathy is the end of that scene, which I think is fucking beautiful. Which is commentary on, like, how shitty white people are. It was In case you're just new to this podcast, Paul and I are both white. What? But are we middle aged whites with a podcast?

But I can't movies. That's kinda funny. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this.

So go back to the club. Too many things are hitting me. Alright, mom. Alright, mom. I used to be strong.

Nobody used to be strong. The thing I was gonna say also is that he's also commenting on the fact that for, I don't know, decades, Hollywood didn't cast natives in native parts. And I think he's I think he's making a commentary on that as well, where it's like, like, you yeah. Sure. We're gonna cast a a Jewish dude and put some tan tanning on him, and he'll be he'll be a a Native American.

Well, it's really important. And again, this is like a nuance piece of it, I think, as a person who doesn't really understand it or practice it. But I've read the definition once, and I think I get the gist of it. But Great self. That it's like it's one of those things where there's a level of, like, Mel Brooks being a Jewish person and the level of empathy and the empathy of the scene and and the lines carrying over of, like, yeah.

Fucking existence is fucking hard and can be a nightmare in ways that a lot of people do not understand. Yeah. This movie, that's the thing is, like, really great comedy cuts to a point that makes you think about why is this funny, or why is it trying to be funny, or why do I find it funny? And this movie is constantly making me ask those questions. Well, in that movie but what's genius is the movie does that on top of also doing these, like, absurd Looney Tunes level Lazzis.

Yeah. That, like it's like a combination of these two things. And, like, as a kid, I'm sure I only really got the Looney Tunes level Lazzis, and those were so funny. But now I am, like, I'm able to enjoy both things. You know?

To me I'm trying to remember. As a kid, the funniest thing to us, I think, wasn't the farts. That's where we are in the movie. No. I know.

This is the, like, the Looney Tunesh. But I I think it was just some of the, like, witty lie repertoire. Like, can't you tell that man's a and, like, cutting off. And then, like, that stuff, for some reason, just fucking It's interesting how well this movie seems to, for me at least, juggle where it's like it picks its spots. Yeah.

It doesn't seem it doesn't feel like it's abusing. No. I guess. Like, that's the way it comes out. It's a even the Mongo character doesn't come off as, like, a weird, gross, like, comical, like, what the fuck are we doing here?

Like, the Tourette's bartender with in Boondock Saints where you're like, what the fuck is going on? No. I never feel that with Mongo. No. I mean, it's it might be, you know, if anything with what we've done, it's maybe, like, closer to the drop dead gorgeous character guy.

Yeah. The Will Sasso character. Yeah. Yeah. But they don't actually ever, like, say that.

He's just, like, a big, strong, dumb dude in this, which was a very common trope in cartoons, like Pete the dog in fucking Disney. You know? Like Oh, yeah. Yeah. Big, dumb, strong dudes.

When they wake and bake, the wake the Waco kid, which I assume the Waco is the baco. But Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little, like, split a joint in the morning, and it's become what I don't remember what Cleve on Little says, but he's like, stick around long enough and, like, keep your nose clean. Like, you you know, you'll you're gonna be on the come up. Well, it seems like and I don't know if this is purposeful, but it seems like he stops drinking and starts just smoking. I think that must be intentional.

We don't see him really we don't see him chugging whiskey anymore. No. We don't. I didn't think about that. I I don't know if it's intentional.

About that. But Oh, I need my froggy. Froggy? Taggart Well, and and right over by the commissary. Do you remember that in the in, like, the gay dancers?

The cowboy good. Fights. He's like, come back and When the cowboy walks behind the stairs underneath of him and comes out and they're, like, best friends and or lovers, it's Oh, lovers hate. He's, like, parked over by the commissary. It literally is.

James Wilder says it pretty much smashes if you and I decide to argue that this is some racist homophobic hateful thing. There's something that smashes that argument. It's pretty incredible. Yeah. I can't think of anything.

I don't know. It's even this where Gene Wilder, I think, has stopped drinking and just woken up a little. Wait. I'm gonna Baked up woke woke and woke? No.

Woken woke. But when he's he he immediately says something, like, very profound where he's talking about the common man. Mhmm. Oh, right. And then says the, you know, morons.

You know. And it's heartbreaking. And that's when Mongo is in town, like, grabbing breaking. Mongo Mongo's here. And he's, like, just, like, shove you vaccines.

Mongo's here. Oh, yeah. They're talking about curing, like, diseases. I've arrived. Oh, no.

We don't live active. Eat the birds. They'll help you. That's how you get worms out of your head is birds. Eat them.

They take the worms right out. We just approved the bird man poster for your wall. We have the worst people in charge, Paul. We clearly, they didn't. Vegas.

You and me, and I was gonna agree with that too. Well, yeah. On this scale and on the macro scale. Why am I laughing? The worst people in charge.

Why am I laughing? Why am I laughing? Because it's the only way I can cope. Oh, and just like the, you know, just like these these racist white dummies, I don't know why it's so funny to me that I don't know the actor's name, but he's When a man punches a horse? That is very because that's funny.

That is very funny. I got that. And the man and somehow also punches the man Yeah. But the end feels it too. He's like, oh.

No problem. K Ker Carys. Some Karis is the actor's name. No. I was thinking of the actor who was in, Dracula dead and loving it who played, who's his assistant in that who's Dracula's guy Oh, I don't remember if it's Igor or Igor or somebody Not not or if it's Renfield or who Renfield.

Renfield. I assume it's Renfield in Denver. He's in this. He's, like, the dentist, I think, but he's the one who runs Okay. He runs in the sheriff's office, and he first runs to the sheriff's desk.

The barber. The barber. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And he runs the sheriff's desk, and he's like, sheriff, we need your and he's not sitting there. And then he just, like, turns around and comes back to him, like, sheriff, we need your help. Start over. Why it's so funny to me. It's almost it almost felt like very naturally an actor, like, going to an incorrect mark and then going to the correct mark, and they were like, just keep it.

Yeah. Like, just keep it. Very funny. Just use all of it. It's very funny.

And the the BART where Gene Wilder's explaining, like, buddy, if you shoot Mongo, he's just gonna get mad. Like, don't do that. And when Bart uses the bomb Yeah. Blast him. He he full on we're full on Bugs Bunny now.

Like, he is like, Telegram. He's like Bugs Bunny all over this. He invented the candygram. He's never gonna get credit for it. But yeah.

And and so they he takes down Mongo, and now La Pena Maine and Headley are livid. And and Headley says, oh, yes. Yes. Perfect. When the beast fails, send in the beauty.

It's like his so dude, he is fucking great. To play this type of person, you have to cast, like, a Stephen Colbert that's not from the Colbert report. That's not this person. Sure. And he's so fucking good at it.

Yeah. He's so great. And I get this Burns and Smithers kind of thing here and, like, the sponges to get a spherical sponge. And, again, so many things seem inspired from this movie. Canyoneros.

Was it about to mention that when he's coming up with the idea to take rock what's the name of the town? I don't know. Creek Bluff. I don't know. But he's, like, when I've seen his statue, He's, like, he's, like, yes.

If only I could Entegris is just watching him, like, grab this woman statue and, like, getting a getting a bonus. And he's excited. Yeah. Yeah. But they're gonna send in his well, I think sim or the girl that he wants to be with, who he's used a lot, which is That he wants on his froggy.

Lily Von Stoop, who is a bar performer. Yeah. And and or maybe current or former sex workers slash Yeah. Immigrant. And the Yeah.

We go through Cleven Little gets these pies from the old lady who's fucking horrible to him earlier. You wouldn't tell anybody that I came and talked to you. Right? Yeah. And he has these costume changes.

And again, every time there's a costume change for he and or Wilder and or Madeline Kahn, it hits me. Oh, the costume is phenomenal. Every time there's an original song, I'm like, what? Yeah. Go on.

Yes. And that's where Von Stupp is here where she's out in this in, like, thigh highs and I'm tired. I'm so tired, and she's tired of having sex with all these boring men. Who bring her? So I like her, excuse me.

What's your name? Tex. Tex, are you in show business? No. Then why are your boots on my stage?

What's your name? George Costanza. George, are you in show business? No. Then why am I talking to you?

Yeah. She's so bored with all of these men and all these encounters. And space. Cleavon Little, Bart Bart changes her. She is gonna slip into something more comfortable which is incredible sparkly lingerie.

Oh my god. Yeah. And it's pink and clearly like handmade and somebody probably spent a million hours for that to mostly be in the dark. I don't think people realize Madeline Kahn is gorgeous. Madeline Kahn in many movies, this and Young Frankenstein and Clue and What's Up, Doc?

And yeah. I agree. She is what a fetching fetching fucking woman. But on top of that, she's just Holy smokes. The comedic all time comedic geniuses.

Doesn't hurt that she's fucking hilarious. Doesn't hurt. And, like, as we're talking about this, it just occurs to me that, like, we just don't really get good comedies anymore. It's so rare. It really is.

Even our comedies that I enjoy that I can think of in the recent they usually have also some other thing, you know, like the like a it'll be a dramedy or it'll be a dramedy. Yeah. It's a yeah. It's a blend. Dramedy.

Yeah. Go on. I'm listening. No. I just I I you know, especially satire, like, I I don't know where it really started to fall off.

So as we're talking about this, I wanna tell you I finally watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem, which you told me to watch many, many moons ago, and I thought it was fucking cool. Last summer, I think. Great. Or two summers ago maybe. I really, really enjoyed that movie.

I'm going through movies right now on my letterbox at Paul acts badly. You can follow Ben at run b e e m c. Run b e e m c. I'm trying to find because I think you know this. I really like rom coms.

Mhmm. I feel like rom coms are in a lot of cases where movie stars are pop. Like, things start to happen. Like that like they're coming to decisions. From people about being a huge movie star.

Yeah. Answer yes. But I can't I'm not finding anything that you're saying, especially that's recent, that is hitting that in the last year. Even in the last five years, like, sure. And I know comedy is hard.

I think comedy is hard. Yeah. I just don't see anything that's, like, a super pure comedy that's, like, it's, like, I don't know when Bridesmaids or Tropic Thunder came out, but those are the two that, like, really jump out at me. I don't know if when super bad came out in relation to those in this moment, but these are ones that I'm like, what's the recent ish? And I'm sure all of those are at least a decade old Yeah.

Yeah. At this point. And maybe I'm just I don't know what funny book smart was funny. I liked good boys. That was funny.

For I long shot was pretty funny, but those are all But, like, Barbie Those are all be genre blends. Barbie was funny, but it also, like, was That's a genre blend. Yeah. It hit on another level too, like a deeper level. And it has a cultural message and a social message as well as to this does too is the thing though.

Sure. But it's actually But this is also like but this is also like not just satire. It's like physical comedy. It's Do some improvisational comedy. There's so much in this that it just feels very Brooksian and doesn't feel repeatable, I guess.

When when Madeline Kahn starts begging Cleavon Little to stay and he still leaves and that whole exchange between the two of them feels so specifically Brooks as you said and Mongo, this is again the thing with space balls that hits on class and History of the World part one that hits on class and Robin Hood men in tights that hits on class and everything where Mongo is released from jail. He just busts his chains, and they're like, Alex Carys was the actor's name, by the way. Okay. But the but where they are like, we're gonna let you go, and Mongo's like, no. I'd rather stay since Yeah.

Since you ignited a bomb in my face to present prevent yourself from being killed, you've actually been decent to me. I'd rather just stay here. You're you're better to me than the dude who hits me with a fucking horse whip. Dude That because Tiger Yeah. Why would Beats the shit out of him all the time.

Yeah. Why would he wanna go back to those assholes? Everybody figures out the railroad through the Rock Ridge plan. We're gonna build a freeway. The dip.

Oh my god. Poor shoe. But the Why did you bring up the shoe? I know. But the because it's such a pretty movie, and I'm gonna say Traumatic experience for my youth.

The literal color in terms of the costumes and the colors that are coming off the screen and the way the movie is is textured and balanced. I'm like, oh, I didn't realize that part of the reason why I love White Men Can't Jump is because it looks like a movie from the seventies. Maybe a movie from the seventies that's had some digital cleaning. I'm not sure, but there's a vibrance to white men can't jump, but as well as this movie that feels like not every movie has, and that's part of what feels so nice about it. Yeah.

I mean, the colors in this movie are incredible. They do such a great job of how the costumes and the buildings just pop against the backdrop of clearly Southern California, like Santa Felder or something. Which they concede later, which is wonderful. Yeah. It's storytelling through costume.

Right? Where we were talking about you were saying the Waco kid stops drinking. Gene Wilder stops drinking. And where he starts wearing all black, and then it's like, oh, this guy's like all fucking business. And when Tigert and his dude show up with the guns and the Waco kid kinda like the chest trick is like, I'm literally gonna blast all these fucking things out of your hands faster than you can blink.

Pew pew pew pew. He switches to wearing like all black that that storytelling through costume and he's all business. And Gene Wilder's performance as we've given a lot of love to a lot of performances in in this movie. This is the thing about this movie is so every performance has a chance to really shine. Yeah.

Headley is convincing LaPadmeine that he has to basically take out this sheriff for, like and put everything forward because his president's potential presidency is on the line. They put, like, a bunch of money to hire every horrible person out there who will come Mhmm. And, like, work for them to go into Rockridge and and pretty much just kill everybody. They're, like, over it. They're, like, fuck it.

Let's just go kill everybody. And I love that Wilder and Clemone Little are gonna infiltrate him, and they go, and there's these two KKK members sitting in the back of the line. As we get this gorgeous pan or, like, dolly shot or whatever. It's gorgeous. Of all of it.

And it's escalating of, like, the people. And the dude who, like, has the motorcycle. Yeah. Cars. There's motorcycle gangs.

There's there's a there's Nazi like, literal Nazi slurs. Literal Nazis. It's so good. Because, again, time doesn't fucking mean shit. It's great.

Oh, yeah. And the KKK members have the on the back of there, it says have a nice day. Yeah. We've hit 88 miles an hour, dude. Nothing fucking matters in there.

Love that their way of getting their attention is like, hey, guys. I think there's someone over here you'd like to see. And they pull Cleveland Little out, and he goes, where are the white women at? They just run after him. It's, like, the most brilliant line delivered.

Fucking amazing. So good. Man, what a shame to lose man, that's part of life. I would have loved to see more of a lot of people. To lose so many peep so many people.

But, yeah. I mean, so many people in this movie, I would have loved to see more work. The charisma of Cleaveron Little, especially just Yeah. Really comes through so strongly through this movie. And I I I like when when Bart when Cleveland Little's like, okay.

The only way we're gonna beat this rich asshole is we're gonna get a plan together, and we're gonna get everybody together, like, power to the people. Yeah. They're gonna bring all of the railroad workers Mhmm. To come help out Rock Ridge. Like, there's a great moment here because it's got you know, they have a lot of Chinese immigrants.

They have a lot of black people, and there's these these white racist white people. Forced immigrants. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And these racist white people, and they're, like, you're gonna they're gonna help you. We're gonna build a fake rock ridge, and we're gonna fool these fools. But you have to give them, like, a corner of Rock Ridge. They have to be able to live here. And they're, like, kinda hesitant.

And I love their responses, like, okay. The black folks and the Chinese people, they can live here, but not the Irish. The Latin people are fine. The sex worker You can't have the Irish. But not the Irish.

Cleveland Little's like, nope. Everybody. Well, and So good. That line delivers. Like, everybody's like, fine.

Everybody. And then they all just kinda, like, get together. And it's this I mean, we're still in this fucking fight right now. It's this understanding, you know, it's it's the genius of, like, the, black jeopardy on SNL. It's It's just understanding that they're, like, at our core common levels for us people who like, normal folks, we're all dealing with the same shit except these, like, certain people are dealing with it at a harder level.

And I think that, like, that is just not something that not everyone's willing to understand. There's room in the And this is dude who needs two minutes. The door. I agree with you. I like, I raised my little formerly yogurt jar to you that's filled with whiskey.

This is such a great example of oppressed people have had to scrape and claw and do everything possible to just fucking survive. And in the end, especially if they're brave or and or they're organized and or they really have hope, they will outwork you, and they will outsmart you. They will beat you. And I think it's such a gorgeous message that this movie has as the fake town of Rockridge is being built. That's taking a little longer.

And it's taking longer than they expect. And we get this this is one of my favorite moments of the movie where Hedley Lamar gives this great monologue. Go do that voodoo that you do so well. And I will win be nominated for Academy Award for best supporting actor. Now go and be evil.

And you see, like, the biker guy, like, start cranking Yeah. Like, the throttle, and he's on a horse. Yeah. It's just a throttle on a horse. It's so good.

And their their genius plan to, like, distract them is to build a toll booth in the middle of the desert. Six of those, they woulda had more than enough time to to to build a One of my favorite lines one of I think my favorite line in the whole thing because this is something that my friends at Purple, when I worked at the restaurant, we would say all the time, someone's gotta go back and get a shit ton of nickels. Dimes. Oh, dimes. Yeah.

Shit ton of dimes. And I almost use I almost use dimes as my scoring system. Someone's gotta go get a shit ton of dimes. It's so great that they, like, literal if it hadn't been made clear enough, these people are fucking stupid Yeah. And should not be in the positions that they're in, going out and enacting the orders of another idiot slash crazy person slash evil person.

Like, these are just people that have been put in positions to go and do fucking crazy shit and don't question anything, but aren't smart enough to That you do. Yeah. And they go into this fake town that's clearly, like, a facade and a It's good, though. Like, other than the fake people, it's good. The fake people aren't but they're idiots.

Hilarious. Yes. And the dynamite established well that they're morons. They're morons. Dynamite doesn't work, so they have the Waco kid, shoot it from afar.

And, again So good. Steady as a rock. He's he's back on his game. So good. And then we see these plastic horses just flying in the air as the dynamite explodes.

I do love, like, the look on Gene Wilder's face though and the music and the edit, and it takes a moment for the bomb to go off, and it's all We haven't mentioned the horse stunts in this are actually pretty solid too. And I didn't look for an ASPCA or, like, all animals are okay at the end of this, but, incredible animal stunt workers. Yes. Incredible. I think you and I are both people, and I will not speak for you.

Don't But when we see things, like, happen with animals in movies, we're like Don't don't don't bring it up. There's a level Don't Have you seen that movie called The Adventures of Milo and Otis? Oh. Clearly, we're talking about the movie The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Wait.

Clearly Otis. That's not Willem Dafoe. I was just gonna say, is that Willem Dafoe as a cat? Did they did they send Willem Dafoe? Why is this oh, is Willem Dafoe going down that river?

How are they gonna get Willem Dafoe back? Did they call Willem Dafoe in that shot? Or is that a cat? Or is that a pussy? I can't tell.

Is that a pussy? Or is that Off shelf. Off shelf. Off shelf. Is that Willem famous actor Willem Dafoe?

Oscar nominated? I can't tell. Oh, lucky you. You were so blessed to hear that episode a few months ago at this point. But, like, where the movie again, like, a blessing where the movie is just, like, I don't give a shit if there's, like, we don't know how to end this.

I think this was the intention. But where the dipshits are trying to take the town out, the the studio number that Dom DeLuise is directing, and I'm starting again to feel like Llewelyn John Lovitz was the voice actor for the director of the Streetcar Named Desire Simpsons. So, like, I'm like, well, they clearly were inspired by this movie. Hands on your hip. Stick out your tush.

It's hard for a skateboard to do though. Like this. Oh, it's so good. Skateboard doesn't have a tush. And I like that blazing saddles and whatever this movie is or this other thing is, like, collide.

Yeah. And now they're just fighting a bunch of dudes in tuxedos. And becoming friends and lovers with them. And then and then that fight spills into, like, the commissary of the studio lot, and there's, like, a Hitler. They're, like, I love the Hitler actor.

He's, like, so when are you done? He's, like, ah, they lose me after the bunker scene. I died. I died at that. I because I completely forgot so much of this movie.

Because the last time I saw it, I was two. Yeah. Because it was that Yeah. Yeah. You were a time time is a construct, man.

You were an infant. That's weird. Time is a construct. But the spill onto Olive Street right outside of Headley is somehow in the bath because this fight just turns into a pie fight where they just start they just start Dude, they say it. Yeah.

Yeah. They just start hitting each other with pies, and Hedley comes out of the bathroom for some reason. I don't know why he's there. And he's and he and his genius idea to, like, escape is to cover his face in pie, which is pretty smart. I mean, everybody's covered in pie.

And the other thing too is, like, this movie goes completely apeshit, I think, to remind us that making movies and arguing over movies and critiquing movies is just silly. This is all it's all just silly. It's It's a silly fun game. A really fun way to express your emotion to Yeah. Communicate your art, whatever it might be.

It's okay to have fun with it. It it really resonates with me. Yeah. That's actually a really good point. It is a very purposeful reason to end it this way because also the movie hasn't hid the fact that it's a movie throughout, you know.

Like, it's not it's not trying to it's very meta in that way. It's very breaking the fourth wall like Deadpool would never. Right? Like, it it wants you know what I mean? Like, it's it's already already accepting the fact that this is a movie.

Accepting the fact that this is a movie. Everybody in this movie is accepting the fact that this is a movie. They look at this they look they break the fourth wall so many times. So why not just break down the fucking set and go into the studio? It's similar to the movie, The first act ends if you pause the movie.

Minutes and seconds are, like, right there. Second act ends right there. Yeah. And then the last, like, five or six minutes of the movie before the credits is, like, fuck you. And, like, you know, Hedley Lamar, like, goes into a movie theater.

Like, you're getting a gremlins to the the you're getting a gremlins to the new batch, Hulk Hogan kind of like Not What the fuck are we doing? But I also when they spill out on on horseback, they spill out onto Barham. Yeah. Or not even Barham. It's Olive.

I was like, I They're in, like, Hollywood and Highland at a point. Yeah. Yeah. It's just now that I'm so familiar with these these areas, I was, like, looking at it from that perspective, like, wow. It looked that Warner Brothers looked the same from that angle.

It does. In '19 in '18 or 1974. Some of the signs are different. The yeah. The Marquise and, like, marketing's different, but that's it.

And they go to the Chinese Grauman's theater, which also pretty much looks the same. Yeah. And They got rid of the awning, like, the walk up. But Yeah. Yeah.

But they're watching Blazing Saddles, and he sees I love that. Gray. He sits down. First, he tries to use a student ID to get his ticket. Student?

And then, like, this Like a fucking rich privileged motherfucker would. And then he goes out of the woods and stay rich. Raisinets raisinets, and he sits down is that what he gets? And then he sits down to watch them. He gets does he get popcorn?

No. Gene Wilder gets popcorn, but I think he just gets Raisinets. It's 35¢. Yeah. And he sits down to watch the movie.

And this first thing he sees on the screen is Cleven Little pull up to the outside of the Chinese Grandma Theater and he and he just goes, oh shit. Shit. The last action hero comes rolling up. Oh, yeah. What do you mean?

We have this showdown outside and Shot in the dick. And he even like, he does the classic bad guy thing where he lies and goes, oh, it looks like I was armed. And then Yeah. They'll fucking Low road, always liar and get shot in the dick. And just like Wayne's world, let's do the make a happy ending.

Yeah. And they go back into the movie, which is great. I loved it more this time than I think I have in previous times. Like, that whole out of movie experience. I've never enjoyed this movie more than I have this time when at the very end of the movie where they get into the studio driver car.

That's, like, clearly, like, a professional driver, and they're like, well, movie's done. I don't know in what sequence they shot that, but that helicopter shot is gorgeous. Yeah. And that's the thing that's so crazy about this movie is even the dude who gets out of the car to let Gene Wilder and Cleave on Little into the car is, like, wow. Great job.

Yeah. That that's happening throughout the movie. Yeah. And they they leave Rock Ridge because they're safe now, and they go off to be best buddies together, I guess. They're they're locked to the hip now.

You feel like they're gonna make more movies together or, yeah, go to The the the together. Yeah. You know? That Let let's exercise this before we rate the movie. What don't you like?

I fucking almost hate to do that, but I don't think we've said a single thing that we're like, hey. And there's gotta be something. Yeah. If I'm being, like Digging. Yeah.

I could I mean, like, I think there's there's certain moments in the script that just drag a little bit. And it's and it's only, like I think it's, like, towards the end of act two leading up to the act three showdown, things for me that just start to drag just just a hair, but not by much. If you would have asked me that before I watched this recent watching, I probably would have said the studio stuff. Okay. Because I I thought I remembered it feeling, like, superfluous.

Like, unless like, I felt like it was, like, a a couldn't figure it out, so let's just go to the studio ending. And I think I don't think it is that. And, yeah, I What about you? This is the thing that I guess I came in with outside of the anxiety of this movie is gonna have subject matter and language that we're gonna just, you know, have to address. Yeah.

And it hasn't been a big deal. No. But are we the authorities on anything? Exactly. I was gonna say we're two white folks.

We're two fucking yeah. Numbskulls, like, quarterback armchair quarterbacks with a podcast. He has two chimps on a Davenport. Thank you, Buzzsprout and Goodpods. Number one on Goodpods in multiple categories.

Pretty cool. There was a level of laissez faire of, like, not trying that I came into the movie believing the movie had. Like, we're so fucking cool. Don't you worry about it. And I watched the movie, and now we've talked about it.

And I thought I was still gonna feel that way. That's why I kind of felt like I was teetering with the five. And I don't know how much I feel that way anymore. If it's more or less, my feeling about the assumption that the movie is very fair, like, we're trying but not trying at all, but we're trying very hard. Like the Timothee Chalamet of movies.

Dude, I gotta say, I respect the shit out of the fact that he was like, bro, I wanna win awards. I wanna be thought of as one of the fucking greats. Yeah. It's like, yeah, man. Okay.

Yeah. As long as you I respect that. Own it. Yeah. Honesty.

Where he's like he's like, I wanna be like Michael Jordan. People don't talk like this very much, and I think it's I'm sorry. I liked that too. I was like Well, I'm I respect that. Well, and it's like, you know, you listen to I recently watched an interview with Isaiah slash JR Rider who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Portland Trail Blazers.

Mhmm. But he was a guy who normally played pretty okay against Jordan. And Kevin Garnett once when they were teammates with the Minnesota Timberwolves was like, fuck you, Michael Jordan. Isaiah Rider's the shit. Michael Jordan was like, excuse me.

And JR Rider was like, he's he's a he doesn't know what he's saying. And Michael Jordan was like, I and I took exception to that. So I took that I took that personally. I took that personally. Okay, sweet girl.

Yeah. I think yeah. I think we should rerank this. I feel like it's part of our job. Not necessarily our job, but something we've established through a pattern because we don't get paid.

I spend money. We are no. We are multimillionaires because of this podcast. Yeah. We can't relate to this movie anymore because I don't understand.

I don't understand what they're going for here. Or the Hedley Lamars of this world. Hedley. Land. Land.

Land. Sea snatch. 202 acres. Yeah. 200,000.

Two hundred thousand. Boys, we have to protect our phony baloney jobs. I love that line. 50 years old. And that's the thing.

I can't hold the fact that this movie is still pretty correct in its point of view at all. Can't hold it against the movie. Look look at our current government. Can't hold it against the movie. It's not the movie's fault.

Right? Nothing fucking changes, man. The thing we we pretend like things are better. Benjamin. Yeah.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Or dare I say, dare dare president La Perma Maine. Hail, screwb. Hail, screwb.

I think I'm gonna I think I'm gonna Yeah. I think I'm gonna go to five chess pieces here. No shit. I'm going back to my OG writing. I'm so glad I bought this movie too.

I know I had to pay beat Bezos and fuck that guy. But I'm just glad that I can watch it now anytime. And I felt and I know there's a nostalgia pull for me. Sure. 10 times in a week.

Dude, I'm not even fucking not even exaggerating. We watched it so much. My brother will attest. I just I believe the let's also have Derek back soon. Yeah.

We should. Yeah. What a joy. I just think it really is one of the great satirizations of this country as a movie, and you don't get a lot of stuff like this. I'm gonna I'm gonna go to five chess pieces.

If you haven't seen this movie, fucking watch this movie, guys. Watch this movie. I'm gonna say it's very intentional that those chess pieces are are black kings. Good call. Yeah.

I understand. Yeah. And and I just wanna say also that whole camera trick, and that's also fucking amazing. And you made such a great point, and I know it probably didn't seem like I was shaky on this at all, but there was a level of has been or would most people that I would talk to, am I crazy about the the technical mastery of this movie? I don't think that I am.

I don't think you're crazy at all. Thanks, man. I do think that it I I am. But yeah. Let me yes.

You are crazy. Not in this case. I'm sorry. Not in this moment. Have you ever seen Transformers Revenge of the Fallen?

Can I talk to you about Transformers Revenge of the Fallen? I Do you have any interest in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen? I'd like you to Would you like to know more? I'd like you to take that disc out of my out of my mouth? I'd like you to take that disc out of my mouth.

Out of the annals? Out of the annals of my mouth. Remove it from the annals? No. I don't think you're crazy at all.

I I actually noticed it more this viewing of how gorgeous this movie was. Yeah. Okay. Good. Thank you.

Erode a blazer. No. I mean, as as you're talking about what you're talking about, and when I I'm talking about what I'm talking about in my this is a musical movie without being a musical, and I I've used the term deft hand a lot on this podcast because I feel like a lot of people come to this podcast and don't love to bring things that they don't like. Some people do. It's true.

Who knows? That's the game. If you don't Isn't it, Ben? I would say that the game. From from me, I do think this is my favorite Brooks.

And I think I'd have to rewatch young Frankenstein. I think it's followed very closely by young Frankenstein. I do like, for me, this movie just hits on so many levels. Yeah. And I I actually really love Spaceballs as I've detached more and more from Star Wars over the years, but this is still, man, this is in this is in my I think this is my top hundred movies, Ben.

As somebody who has, you know, 3,500 movies in their diary, this is in that five star category. This is in five froggies, Ben. Five froggies. You know, folks, if you wanna see all the movies we've done, you can follow Paul on Letterboxd. Don't do that.

Box badly. Follow Ben at Run BMC. Or you can follow the podcast on Instagram at review x two podcast. We always post movies we've done. We have a long library there.

You should check it out. Stick with us through this sweating, singing, seventies. Sweating, singing, sauntering Sontaring. Sappy, Sammy slippy slappy hot. Swanson.

Samsonite. Samsonite. Way off. Way off. But there are a lot of people who do a lot of stuff for this little indie podcast that was rated number one.

Jamie Henwood does our bookend themes. Absolutely. He does. Matt Foskett does our, what you've been doing and our what are you watching themes. Chris Olds does our fun facts.

I do some of the interstitials. And I don't know if it's gonna be now or later, but we hope you enjoy our previous slash upcoming segment change from what you've been doing to why so excited, I think is what we've decided. Why so excited? I'm excited. I'm just gonna say that.

So we're at two fives. Five five, baby. We started off we started off this seventy summer pot. With a big bang. With a big bang.

One shot. Boom. Stick with us, folks. It's gonna be fun. And thank you for joining us for Blazing Saddles.

See you next time. Hi, everyone. This is JJ, the cofounder of Goodpods. If you haven't heard of it yet, Goodpods is like Goodreads or Instagram, but for podcasts. It's new, it's social, it's different, and it's growing really fast.

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